Best Dino Oil?

[Annihilator]

Ok, i have an '89 Chevy Caprice w/ 65k. Its a 305 V8 motor and it has bad seals. It burns oil on startup and when cold. Anyway, i've been using valvoline 10-W30 all year round since i live in chicago and it usually gets pretty warm. I have the following oil choices:
Castrol GTX
Valvoline
Chevron Supreme
Pennzoil

Which one is considered the best oil with regards to lasting long and having good flash points etc. And why the heck is chevron so cheap? its about 1.14 a quart and the others are usually at least .50 cents more. What do you guys think?

 

[wwillson]

First, where did you find Chevron in Chicagoland? I have looked all over the place and haven't been able to find any.

If you like Chevon, give Delo 15w-40 or 10w-30 a try. It will help clean up your motor and provide superior longevity as compared to most other oils.

 

[jthorner]

I would use one of the High Mileage vehicle oils in your situation in the Winter in a 10W-30 grade and a heavy duty engine oil like Pennzoil Long-Life, Chevron Delo or Mobil Delvac in a 15W-40 grade in the summer months.

NAPA has their store label version of Valvoline Max Life High Mileage Oil on sale right now for $1.49/quart and that would be one of several good choices for your situation.

John

 

[Annihilator]

Max Life oils will not help, the valve seals need to be replaced. The car burns the max life stuff the same as regular oil. I will hopefully get that fixed, but in the meantime i just need a reliable dino oil.

There is a walmart on touhy and central rd in Niles IL. They have a supply of chevron, halvoline, and delo stuff.

Any other input on the best oil?

 

[Pantdino]

This is a good old-fashioned American V8. I'd use 20-50 in the summer and the thickest oil that makes sense in winter.

 

[therion]

Try ARX!

 

[steeltoe]

throw some delvac 15w-40 in there! At $5.88/gallon it's a good deal. I switched to it in my 5.7l truck from mobil1 and it made a good bit of difference in my oil pressure and start-up ping. jmho.

 

[Jimbo]

Chevron is less expensive because there are no advertising costs. When was the last time you heard/saw a Chevron motor oil ad on the radio or TV? They rarely sponsor motorsports under that brand name. Havoline is the product that is marketed that way. Enjoy the savings.

 

[novadude]

quote:

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Ok, i have an '89 Chevy Caprice w/ 65k. Its a 305 V8 motor and it has bad seals. It burns oil on startup and when cold.

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My Dad has a '90 Caprice with the 305 TBI (170k miles). He swears that Maxlife has minimized the puffing on start-up, and has reduced his oil consumption.

Your results may vary. These engines are known for leaky valve seals.

 

[Annihilator]

So back to my question, basically out of the 4 i mentioned, chevron is the best deal and is just as durable and good as the others? I plan on fixing the valve seal issue, so thats not the problem.

 

[mikep]

quote:

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Originally posted by Annihilator:
So back to my question, basically out of the 4 i mentioned, chevron is the best deal and is just as durable and good as the others? I plan on fixing the valve seal issue, so thats not the problem.

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Yes. Use the Chevron, pocket the savings.

Mikep

 

[TR3-2001SE]

I think the Castrol GTX is an excellent oil. We have seen zero UOA on the 20w-50 but I have taken my toyota to 250,000 on this oil with little problem. I am now doing a auto-rx treatment which has cut the oil consumption way down. I don't know why we don't see any UOA on this oil but I will do one once the auto-rx treatment is done. The spec. I have come up with on the GTX 20w-50 from the vintage triumph site show it with better specs than the 15w-40 delo which everyone recomends. I guess UOA's will tell the story.
It has gotten expensive lately which does worry me.

 

[haley10]

Valvoline has always seemed to burn off pretty rapidly if you have an oil burner. Castrol GTX has always seemed to reduce these consumption issues quite a lot in my experience.

I don't have any real experience with these others, so I can't comment. GTX might help until you can fix the problem.

I would probably eliminate Valvoline from the competition.

 

[Norm Olt]

If you have had no cold-start problems with various 10W-30 oils you would be hardpressed to find a better one than Chevron Supreme in this grade. Pennzoil & Havoline are probably every bit as good...

For additional protection in the hot times, and as far as cleaning is concerned, either of the HDEO's mentioned, Delo 400 or Pennzoil LongLife, in 15W-40 are hard to beat.

You did not mention your oil change interval, but all the HDEO products should routinely go 3-5K miles without serious degradation once the seal problem is rectified. These are what I use in a couple older Mercedes V8's at the 5K interval.

If you want to wait that long...

 

[Annihilator]

Ya, my car starts pretty slow with the valvoline 10w30 when its under 30 degrees out. This could slo be the battery. Im probably going to use pennzoil 5w30 during winter and chevron supreme 10w30 during the summer in chicago. I don't think ill need anything thicker. I also do 3k intervals with the dino oils with an AC DElco filter.

 

[Flimflam]

quote:

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Originally posted by TR3-2001SE:
I think the Castrol GTX is an excellent oil..... I have taken my toyota to 250,000 on this oil.....
.....It has gotten expensive lately which does worry me.

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Yes, GTX is just wonderful, isn't it? Up till November last year, Castrol (dino) was the only motor oil I would allow in my engines. But times change, and people move on. I changed to Chevron Delo 400 in 11/2003. After Auto-RX clean cycle, I will use Schaeffer Supreme 7000 series 15w-40. But who knows? Depending on what I see in UOA numbers, I might just go back to Castrol again.

I had some wild and wonderful experiences with Castrol in my time. As a teenager, I raced Honda 4-stroke motorcycles with my buddies. We used Castrol GTX and Castrol HD-30, and had sadistic fun taking the tachometer needle in one side of the redline and out the other side. I recall seeing 11,500 RPM on some occasions.....did not even throw a con-rod. Those 1972-era engines are still working today, the majority have not even had their heads off for maintenance. So much for gunk and varnish build-up. And then, later, with cars, we'd sometimes forget about the oil change for 6 months at a time.....clocking up to 9,000+ miles on one fill of Castrol GTX. The oil turned really dark, but apart from that, no problems.

You are right, bud. Castrol GTX is the one, the best one.